The Season is Upon Us (with a Christmas Craft)

This will be my last post of the year and what a year it's been.  As with any year, there are ups and downs.  Looking back over it all is a bit overwhelming.  There have been projects, trainings, work, canning, growing, cooking, baking, laughter, hugs, kisses, joy, tears, fighting, frustration, pulling-out-of-hair, re-grouping, forgiving, and loving.  And that was just the month of September!  Okay, all kidding aside, we are so thankful to have had another year together to grow and learn and love.

Tuesday was our last day of school, so we are on Christmas break!  Here's a bit of what we've been up to in the past few days....

The baking has begun (and will end today).  While some of you may have gotten the impression that we make ALL our favorites every year, that is not the case.  This year we've made caramel popcorn and four kinds of cookies.  The end.  When done the week before Christmas, it feels like just enough.

 Caramel Popcorn (babies were once bathed in this tub)

Miriam helping me make my all time favorite cookie (also shown below).

Making Haman's Ears

One of my huge projects recently was to finish Miriam's Christmas stocking.  She's three and a half and the poor girl was afraid she'd have to go another year without her personalized stocking.  Note to young women and new moms:  Don't go overboard making all kinds of special things for your first child if you plan to have several more!  You may be plagued with guilt as you force yourself to do the same for your other children.  And, remember, by the time you're cross-stitching your third child's stocking (9 years later, for me), your eyes will not be so good and you'll have to use your son's reading lamp clipped to the frame to be able to see anything at all.  But it was a labor of frustration love, so it was worth it :-).

In case your kids get a little restless over their break, here is a fun, FREE, and time-consuming craft they might enjoy- Christmas Tree Catalogs.  These have been around for awhile and you may already make them, but our family joined in the fun for the first time this year (thanks, Carmen!).  And when you're done with them?  Just toss them back into recycling.  Seed catalogs and pharmacy journals are our favorite to use.

Only three folds are involved.  Starting with the cover, take the top right hand corner and fold the top edge of the page to meet the left side.

Next, bring the fold you just created also to the left side.

Now, fold up the bottom little tag/flag, so it's flush with the bottom of the catalog.

Turn the page you just folded to the left and start on the second page.  Repeat until you've done every page. Stand it up and then staple or tape the front and back covers together to help keep the tree spread out and open.

Merry Christmas, friends.  You are dear to me!

Love,
Jane

Loving God, Help us remember the birth of Jesus, 

that we may share in the song of the angels, 

the gladness of the shepherds, 

and worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate

and open the door of love all over the world. 

Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting. 

Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings,

and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children,

and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts, 

forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake. Amen.

- Robert Louis Stevenson

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Hundred Dollar Holiday Excerpt #2

Over the next few weeks as I'm reading through the little book Hundred Dollar Holiday by Bill McKibben, I thought I would share some quotes with you that I find thought provoking and/or inspiring.  The book takes a look at the history of the holiday of Christmas and offers up suggestions to simplify it in order to make it even more meaningful (less is more, no?).  This little series is not meant to take away from however you choose to celebrate.  They are just thoughts to ponder.

"What can excite us- what can make us salivate the way a circus could make some Kansas farm boy salivate- is the prospect of peace and quiet.  The prospect of a lull, an interlude.  Stillness scares us (that's why the TV goes on when we walk into the hotel room) but it attracts us, too.  If there's one thing we'd really like from Christmas, I think, it's a little of that "season of peace" that the greeting card writers are always promising.  It's one of the reasons "Silent Night" is the all-time favorite carol.  There's a moment when we sing it each year at the end of the Christmas service, with the lights out and everyone holding a candle that frames their face with soft light, and that marks for me the absolute height of Christmas.... It's not that this quiet is morally superior to noise; if I'd lived on the eighteenth-century prairie surrounded by windy quiet, I'm sure I'd have been out there blowing things up [he's referring to firecrackers] on Christmas eve, and grinning as I did it. But we live here and now, amidst clamor.  For us, what beckons is not the flash of the Saturnalia [an ancient Roman festival], but instead that little town of Bethlehem, with its deep and dreamless sleep, its silent stars floating by.

How silently, how silently, the wondrous gift is given;
so God imparts to human hearts the blessing of his heaven.
No ear can hear his coming, but in this world of sin,
where meek souls will receive him, still the dear Christ enters in." Pin It

Even though...

Even though we know this world is not as it was created to be,
even though we know we are living separate from God because of our choice,
even though we know that evil has it's claws of influence in this world,
even though we know that bad things do and will happen,
even though we know that the only way to perfect peace is Christ's return,

it breaks our hearts every single time we hear that something terrible has happened,
it makes us question 'why' even when we already know the answer,
it makes us try to blame people and systems as if finding the human culprits will solve it all,
it makes us doubt the influence of good in the world,
it makes us fear when we are told not to be afraid.

So why do we act so surprised when bad things happen?  Why does it rock our world, taint our every thought and cause tears to flood our eyes when we know these things will happen again and again?  Why haven't we developed skin like armor by now?

It's because we are created in the image of God.  We might have all the facts and might be able to anticipate tragedies, but we still care despite the logic.  We have compassion.  We love and want to make things better.  Despite the madness, we see light within and beyond.  We see what could be and will be and aren't satisfied with our reality here on earth.

Despite the darkness, we care because our God cares.  Why else would we continue the seeming insanity of believing things can be different here?  We love and feel compassion because He does, so let's not lament our hurting for others.  Let's embrace it as a God-given trait that we are honored to live out.

So, if possible, let us embrace grief and sorrow in one hand and hope and light in the other.  With these two, let our feet walk us out into the world.  Both handfuls are expressions of how much we love the people God created- a very small sliver of His love and yet so incredibly powerful against the darkness that exists.  Not by our power, but by His.

We've proven we cannot fix things on our own.  Let's stop thinking we can and join Jesus in the only restructuring of society that will ever be successful.  Let's impact one life at a time for Him as He so graciously and mercifully impacts us, one life at a time.  Let's recognize that it's really a joy and privilege to be created in His image. Pin It

Surprisingly Good: Roasted Turnips

I am slightly embarrassed to say that I don't think I've ever eaten turnips before a couple weeks ago.  For sure not as a stand alone vegetable.  Forgive me, will you?  It's one of those things.  I don't remember my mother ever cooking with them.  Jamey has never suggested we grow them.  And I've often heard that people don't like them.  So, when a neighbor brought us a bowl full of wild turnips he and his son picked while hunting, internally I groaned a bit. I was going to have to make and eat turnips.  Sure, I guess I wouldn't have had to, but they were gifted to me so it seemed like the proper thing to do.

Now, please don't go gifting me weird things because you think I'll eat anything I'm given.  I can and will draw the line...somewhere, anyway.

I didn't go searching for recipes.  Instead I thought, "Well, they're a root vegetable, so they're likely good roasted," and left it at that.  I scrubbed them, cut off the tails and tops and diced them.

Then, I tossed them with olive oil, salt and pepper.  I spread them on a greased cookie sheet and roasted them at 400 degrees until they were soft, tossing them once or twice.

They were delicious.

They reminded us of brussels sprouts (which we like when they aren't overly bitter).  The roasting process gave them a wonderful touch of sweetness...my.  Needless to say, we were sad when we hit the bottom of that bowl after making them twice.

Turnips just might be in our garden line-up for next year.  Are they in yours?

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A Gentle Cookbook Christmas Reminder

In case you are interested in ordering the Thy Hand Hath Provided cookbook for someone (or yourself!) this Christmas, please place your order by this Friday (December 14th) for your best chance of receiving it in time (if you live in the U.S.).  International orders are welcome, but they likely won't make it in time.

I want to extend a huge thank you to all who have already ordered!  I am totally amazed and humbled at your interest and support :-).

Click on image to order...

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Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls

Winter is the season for soup.  Unfortunately, I'm not soup's biggest fan. I'm carbs' biggest fan (and absolutely hate to admit it).  So, in order to get myself excited about soup, I need to pair it with a warm roll, muffin or bread.  One of my favorite rolls to make are these Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls.  They take a little more attention than muffins, but the process melds perfectly with the making of a soup.  Let me explain what I mean.

Step 1:  Mix up the dough and set aside to rise until doubled.  While it's rising...

Step 2:  Make the soup.  While it's simmering....

Step 3:  Roll out and up the crescent rolls and set to rise again.  While they're rising...

Step 4: Finish the soup (if need be) and set the table.

Step 5: Pop the rolls into the oven, pour the water and stand in front of your oven while inhaling the incredible aroma wafting from it.  Don't burn your nose.

Step 6:  Sit down to soup and fresh, soft, sweet-smelling crescent rolls.

The end.

Oh, wait.  Did you want the actual recipe?  Of course you did.  First, let me say that just because they look fancy does not mean they're hard to make.  They're not.  Secondly, let me apologize about the lighting in some of these photos.  I am not a photographer and I make dinner at dinnertime (hence the poor lighting).  And I'm okay with that.

Sweet Potato Crescent Rolls (adapted from Simply In Season)
The original recipe calls for whole wheat bread flour.  I don't usually have this on hand.  My version (below) works beautifully using regular whole wheat flour and all-purpose flour in it's place.
Yields about 2 dozen crescent rolls

1 cup mashed sweet potatoes (Scrub clean a large sweet potato and cut into quarters.  Cover with water and boil until very soft.  Remove peel and mash with a fork or potato masher or blend with an immersion blender.)
1 cup milk
1/4 cup butter

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 cup sugar
1 tbsp. active dry yeast
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground allspice

1 egg
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

In a small saucepan, combine mashed sweet potatoes, milk and butter.  Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the butter has melted.  In the meantime, combine 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour, sugar, yeast, salt and spices in the bowl of your electric mixer.  Add the sweet potato mixture to the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until well combined.  Add the egg and beat on medium speed until blended well.  Add remaining flours.  Once just combined, lift out the beater and, with your (clean) hand, finish kneading the dough in the bowl until smooth, adding a little more flour if it's too sticky to handle.  Leave the dough in the mixing bowl, cover with a towel and set aside to rise until doubled.

Once the dough is twice the size it was, punch it down and divide the dough in half.  Lightly flour your counter and rolling pin.  Roll half of the dough out on the counter into a circle about 12 inches in diameter.  With a sharp knife, cut the circle into 12-16 wedges.

Roll each wedge up tightly starting with the wider end.

Repeat this process with the other half of the dough.  Place the crescent rolls on a greased cookie sheet (or on parchment paper) and cover with a towel again until doubled (about 10-15 minutes).

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or until they turn light brown.  Brush with melted butter while warm and serve right away.  Store cooled leftovers in an air tight container or plastic bag.

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Hundred Dollar Holiday Excerpt #1

Over the next few weeks as I'm reading through the little book Hundred Dollar Holiday by Bill McKibben, I thought I would share some quotes with you that I find thought provoking and/or inspiring.  The book takes a look at the history of the holiday of Christmas and offers up suggestions to simplify it in order to make it even more meaningful (less is more, no?).  This little series is not meant to take away from however you chose to celebrate.  They are just thoughts to ponder.

"The Christmas we now celebrate grew up at a time when Americans were mostly poor, mostly lived with extended families, mostly worked hard with their hands and backs.  It's no wonder that piles of presents felt different, that rowdy noise sounded different. The Christmas that was invented in the 1940s was fairly flexible: people could change the size of the presents as the nation grew richer, for instance.  But more and more that old Christmas finally feels played out.  We've changed too much, and if we feel harassed by Christmas, that's why.  It's not that Christmas has changed, it's that we have.  We're like fifty-year-olds going to Daytona Beach for spring break.  Maybe we can remember why it seemed fun once, but frankly, we'd rather sleep at night."

In essence, he's saying when life was hard and dull, a Christmas full of abundance, light and noise set the season apart from the rest of the year.  Today, when we experience abundance, light and noise all throughout the year, how do we set Christmas apart? Pin It

Daydreaming

Lately I've been dreaming about...

But then I snap out of it and remember that it's December which means our ladies cut way back in their laying.  As in one egg in three days.  It's really depressing when you're used to a dozen a day.

Here are our top 3 reasons why I'm egg-longing:

1) Shorter days (day light) leads to less laying.  We try to combat this by putting a light (on a timer) in the hen house to extend their "days".  It's not very effective this year but in years past it helped a lot.

2) Many of our hens are aging out and our couple pullets aren't yet laying.  While Jamey thinks we should stop feeding the older hens (and turn them into soup) I can't quite condone it.  They're not my pets or anything, but when I stop producing eggs, I don't want someone to put me upside down in a cone and...well, you know.

3) Skunks and opossums have started frequenting our hen house and eating their feed and eggs.  Shame on them.  So far the Havahart Trap has caught several opossums which Jamey has taken for a drive, but one of these days, he's going to trap a skunk and then what?

Lack of water can also slow up egg production, so make sure to provide plenty of beverage for your hens.

This shortage has lead to...I can hardly say it...buying eggs at the store.  This just makes me sad- not because it's bad to buy them at the store but because fresh, (real) free-range eggs are truly wonderful.  And I miss them. Pin It

Our Favorite Christmas Cookies & Treats

Just because we're waiting until the week before Christmas to bake, doesn't mean you are.  You all are much more disciplined about not sneaking them from the freezer or gobbling up half a dozen while they're still warm, right?  Not that there's anything wrong with that.  Of course.

In the event you're already baking or will be baking soon, I wanted to offer up our favorites.  If you've been around here for awhile, you'll see that our list hasn't changed much.  That's because these are the cream of the crop, in my opinion, and improving on the list would be tough.  That said, I'd love to hear what your favorite Christmas cookie is.  Would you tell me?  Please, please, please?

First off- Lemon Bars. Oh, how I love them.  My infatuation began in our college cafeteria where I ate them for the first time.  Imagine how I now enjoy these in contrast with the albeit tasty cafeteria version (they actually baked them there, I believe).

Next, we have my mother-in-law's Caramel Popcorn.  Hers is the best I've ever had- well-coated, not grainy, just melt-in-your-mouth heavenly.

These Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies are my favorite cookie in the world and I'm not exaggerating.  I could eat them every day at every meal.  Boldly spiced and chocolaty, they are divine.

Ahhhh.  These are my mother's Chocolate Mint Brownies.  You can add green food coloring to the mint layer to make them more festive, but I like leaving them pure white so your unsuspecting company is wowed by the flavor punch.

Such a classic- Peanut Blossoms.  These were my favorite growing up.  I'd always eat the peanut butter cookie around the kiss, saving the chocolate for my last bite.  Hmm.  Come to think of it, that's exactly what I still do:-).

This Gingerbread Cookie recipe came from my mom.  She use to pipe white icing on her gingerbread men, giving them faces and little pants, shirts and shoes.  Several years ago, I decided to decorate them by dipping them in melted chocolate and then let the kids decorate with sprinkles.  As you may have noticed above, I love the chocolate-gingerbread combination, so these are my second favorite cookie.  And I can still give the illusion of little pants, shoes and hats.

Do you know about Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies?  Well, I am happy to introduce you.  The bark can totally stand alone as a treat (or sweet gift wrapped in a cellophane bag), but add them to chocolate cookies?  Be still my beating heart.

In the back of Beth Morre's bible study book on Esther comes this recipe for Haman's Ears.  Soft, sweet cookie is wrapped around your choice of filling- we use apple butter and different flavors of jam.  Not only are they delicious, but they remind our family of the way God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things.

Lastly, Homemade Marshmallows.  If you've never tried these, you really must.  They are surprising easy to make and taste so much better than the store bought variety.  And!  Your kids will love dropping one big  giant marshmallow into their hot chocolate instead of those of itty-bitty ones.

Almost all of these recipes can also be found here.

Happy baking, loves!

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